During the busy day, when the construction site is bustling and full of life, safety in terms of not being robbed is generally not too much of a problem. But when night falls, and the construction site is quiet and empty, criminal elements can cause a lot of damage to your work as well as to your budget, should they try to damage or steal your plant hire machinery.
And it is not just the nights that are a potential problem. Anytime that the team is not on the construction site is an opportunity for criminals to do harm, and when you are hiring your plant machinery, you will want to make sure that you do everything you can possibly do, to keep the machinery you have hired safe.
Stolen Machinery
Stolen or damaged plant hire machinery is going to cost you a small fortune. And not only will you have to worry about having to budget for a replacement (if you have not taken out insurance) but there is also the worry that the specific pieces of machinery that you have lost might not be readily available.
Often, the machinery that gets stolen ends up being something rather specialised, and this means that there is a good chance that a replacement will not be immediate. This in turn means you won’t get back to work for a while.
Then there is the fact that your company might get a bad reputation, both amongst insurance companies and plant hire companies. Sadly, just one incident can leave you with a bit of a black mark against your name. You might also see your insurance rates increase if you have had a costly incident.
How to Protect Your Machinery
The most basic way to keep plant machinery safe from theft would be to lock it up in a secure premises when no one is around, but this is not possible for everyone, especially if you are working at a brand new place where the infrastructure is minimal.
So aside from having a secure, locked up construction site, this is what you can do:
- Have a lockup policy
For your equipment and anything else on site, you need to make sure that the equipment is locked up (as in doors and windows locked) completely. Everything else in the area should also be properly locked up with padlocks, chains and anything else. Your policy should also include the people responsible for locking up.
- Have tracking equipment
When you are hiring, ask the plant hire company to specify whether or not their equipment has a tracker. This way, if something is stolen, you will be able to track where it has gone.
- Keep records
Construction sites are full of equipment of all shapes and sizes. To ensure that you are able to keep track of everything, make sure that you have a detailed list of everything you have hired and everything that you have on the property. This way, if something is lost, you will be able to check your records to see when and where it was last used.
